[caption id="attachment_8566" align="alignnone" width="1600"]
© Robin Hill[/caption]
Image courtesy of SHoP Architects[/caption]
© Robin Hill[/caption]
Image courtesy of SHoP Architects[/caption]
© Robin Hill[/caption]

FLO & JET | SHOP ARCHITECTS
Miami, USAWhat does the name mean?
Description provided by SHoP Architects. The name is a playful reference to the sea and a nod to the impermanent nature of the project. Flotsam is the old nautical term for salvage found floating on the ocean (as in, after a shipwreck). Jetsam is cargo deliberately thrown overboard (as in, to lighten the load in a storm).What was the inspiration?
“At once glamorously amorphous and rigorously defined, the dual pavilions of “Flotsam & Jetsam” evoke the geometries of current-borne sea life from diatoms to jellyfish. In their form and mode of fabrication, the pavilions also pay homage to the spirit of collaboration that is an increasingly necessary precondition for success in creative work of every type, including the enterprises now finding a home in Miami’s own surging innovation sector... By evoking a specifically Miami sense of seaside glamor in an environment realized through progressive creative methods, “Flotsam & Jetsam” seeks to be both a celebration of the city as it has long existed in the popular imagination and an evocation of what it can become.” Excerpt from the project description (attached)What is it made of?
Our partners at BRANCH TECHNOLOGY (Chattanooga) and OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY (Nashville) each contributed a proprietary 3D printing method to the project. BRANCH: Carbon-fiber reinforced ABS via a robotic arm (truss/web components) OAK RIDGE: Biodegradable bamboo polymer via a large-bed 3D printer (benches/bar) Who else did we partner with? DASSAULT, the entire project was designed and managed on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, and TT, for engineering.Is it sustainable?
Two methods explored in Flo & Jet, the biodegradable bamboo material and the use of structural 3D printing, are part of a promising palette of techniques architects are developing to pursue low-carbon construction in the future. [caption id="attachment_8564" align="alignnone" width="1600"]
What’s next?
After Design Miami, Flotsam & Jetsam will be reinstalled in the Miami Design District’s iconic Jungle Plaza to house an outdoor cultural event space for long-term public enjoyment. The space will be launched with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) in Spring/Summer 2017 alongside a signature community program for bringing the world-class public sculpture to the city. [caption id="attachment_8567" align="alignnone" width="1500"]
Fun Facts
- Heights: Pavilion A, approximately 13’; Pavilion B (bar pavilion), approximately 11’-6”
- Pavilion A alone has 27 MILES of material (carbon-fiber reinforced ABS), if each strut-length were unfolded and laid end-to-end. Further than from Miami to Fort Lauderdale!
- Pavilion B has approximately 20 MILES of material. Combined, the total output of the Branch Technologies components would stretch from Miami to Boca Raton!
- Branch Technologies deployed three robots to complete their part of the construction: Rudy, Tex, and Walker.
- Rudy’s build envelope is 47.7’ x 5.6’ x 7.5’ (AKA enormous because track-mounted)
- Tex and Walker build within a 16.6’ x 5.1’ x 7.2’ envelope (fixed mount)
- The largest Branch Technologies panel is approximately 20’ x 7’ and weighs 300 lbs. Size of the panels was limited by the doors of the factory and the bed of the trucks used for transportation.
- One of the 12 segments of the ORNL bamboo printing weighs 695 lbs!
- Average weight of the ORNL bamboo “tentacles” is 250-300 lbs.
- The bamboo print medium is 100% bio-bases, biodegradable, and sustainably harvested—a true “material of the future.”

Concept Text
A second material printing technology, bringing with it another set of opportunities and constraints, was provided by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The contrasting method used by ORNL— which employs a biodegradable bamboo print medium—is also capable of enormous output sizes. In order to optimize an exploration of the possibilities of the print medium, and to create instruction sets suitable for communicating clearly with the production team (in this case, crucially, the robots themselves), SHoP leveraged a longstanding partnership with Dassault Systèmes. Dassault is an international leader in developing creative design and project management platforms optimized for 3D production and direct-to-fabrication methodologies. Using its 3DEXPERIENCE product for all stages including conceptual development, in the design of “Flotsam & Jetsam” SHoP was able to exploit the software’s potential for merging freewheeling creative generation and rigorous production into a single process flow. This mode of working streamlined as well the fruitful integration of the team’s engineering consultants, Thornton Thomasetti, who were tasked with determining and verifying full-scale loading requirements on the printed construction media employed. Taken together, the installation developed by SHoP, the project team, and our partners at Design Miami presents in microcosm a method of thinking and making that holds the potential to revolutionize the expressive potential of collaborative design in real-world conditions. By evoking a specifically Miami sense of seaside glamor in an environment realized through progressive creative methods, “Flotsam & Jetsam” seeks to be both a celebration of the city as it has long existed in the popular imagination and an evocation of what it can become. [caption id="attachment_8568" align="alignnone" width="1100"]